There is enormous growth in the use of social web and mobile applications such as Facebook and Instagram, these applications heavily rely on the increasing comfort and desire of people to share photos. Similarly, there has been continued growth in websites and mobile applications that connect people, either generally to socialize or to meet on a romantic date, although online dating methods have not markedly changed since they were first introduced.
On the web and in social applications there is also a growing trend of gamification, which comprises techniques to leverage people's natural desires for competition, achievement, status, self-expression, altruism, and closure (Wikipedia). An example of a gamification social application is FourSquare where people rise in status and rewards by checking regularly into local places such as coffee shops, using their mobile device location based sensors to confirm their presence.
There have been numerous studies on what features make a face attractive such as a study entitled Human Facial Attraction and Sexual Selection by Karl Grammer and Randy Thornhill. Humans from birth have a natural tendency to focus and be fascinated by faces and facial features, as can be learned from a study entitled the Development of infants' attention to faces during the first year by Michael C. Frank, Edward Vul and Scott P. Johnson.
There are already many pre-existing techniques and applications for mobile applications to take photos and identify facial areas. This functionality is already built into many smart mobile devices and can be utilised by the invention.
This invention draws on the universal principle that people are attracted to photos and, in particular, faces and facial features, and then (a) combines that with the ability to take and share photos including facial photos using mobile devices and the pre-existing automated photo manipulation techniques, (b) adds the gamification of what visually attracts one individual to another facial feature by facial feature, and (c) provides people the opportunity to connect by playing the application generally, or by playing with others while attending a pre-determined event. The present invention answers a need for a social method that enables people to identify others that attract them, through a stimulating game, adding fascination and anticipation.